Grand Canyon Trust v. United States Bureau of Reclamation
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's annual operating plans for the Glen Canyon Dam along the Colorado River under NEPA, the ESA, and the APA. The group was concerned about the dam's impact ...
Wildearth Guardians v. Salazar
A district court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuits challenging BLM's decision to authorize the leasing of certain public lands in northeastern Wyoming for coal mining operations. The groups, who claim that BLM failed to prepare an adequate EIS before authorizing the leasing of the tracts at i...
Sierra Club, Inc. v. Bostick
A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of segments of the Keystone XL pipeline. After an oil company's original request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline was denied by President Obama in 2011, the company sought to divide its original interco...
League of Wilderness Defenders v. United States Forest Service
The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service's EIS for a forest thinning research project in the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest within the Deschutes National Forest complies with NEPA. The project allows logging and controlled burning on roughly 2,500 acres of the Forest to reduce the risk...
Tinicum Township v. United States Department of Transportation
The Third Circuit denied petitions for review under NEPA challenging the FAA's approval of an expansion project at the Philadelphia International Airport. The FAA prepared an EIS and conducted an air quality analysis to meet the overlapping requirements of NEPA and the CAA, and EPA submitted comment...
Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources & Environmental Control v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Third Circuit held that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers complied with NEPA, the CWA, and the CZMA in its decision to deepen the main channel of the Delaware River by five feet. The Corps' 2009 EA was neither arbitrary nor capricious. The Corps complied with the procedural requirements prescribed ...
League of Wilderness Defenders v. United States Forest Service
A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service violated NEPA, but not the NFMA, in approving the use of herbicides to control invasive plant species in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest comprises 2.3 million acres in the northeast corner of Oregon and the w...
Colorado Environmental Coalition v. Salazar
A district court vacated and remanded BLM's resource management plan and EIS for the Roan Plateau Planning Area in Colorado. BLM considered a number of alternatives in its NEPA analysis, but ultimately decided to permit the leasing of 100% of the plateau for oil and gas drilling subject to vario...